Just another fine example of inappropriate political discourse in use and its all-too-predictable effects. Brought to you, with gusto, by the Teabaggers and Republicans of the United States of America. Or -- perhaps more appropriately from their warped perspective -- that should be "the Untied States" of America.

As ThinkProgress previously reported, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) advocated for and passed budget cuts last year that cut off urgent transplant funding that was previously promised to 98 Arizonans. In late November, Mark Price, an Arizona father who had been battling leukemia for a year, died due to complications related to chemotherapy treatment he was receiving. Price was awaiting an organ transplant that could’ve saved his life, but he was unable to receive one in time due to Brewer’s budget cuts.

Now, the University of Arizona Medical Center has told the press that another patient passed away in late December because they were unable to get their organ transplant funded.

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Just how much is this killer budget savings doing for Arizona?

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As the Arizona Republic notes, the savings Arizona is supposed to have by not funding the transplants amount to $1.36 million. As Arizona98.com notes, "The fact our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters (hard-working citizens and good people) have been deemed expendable at a price of $13,877.56 per human life still does not make sense."

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It makes plenty of sense...if you're a Republican.

Note, too, that in the GOP's overall zest and zeal to nullify any achievements of the Obama Administration, their desire to repeal the Healthcare bill might hit a couple of snags that go directly against the grain of their "fiscal responsibility" mantra: According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a repeal of HCR would increase the deficit by $230B. That's "Billion" with a capital B.

Of course, this kind of reasoning and hypocrisy shouldn't be anything new or shocking to anyone -- this is effectively the same GOP that drove the nation over the cliff and then into a deep ditch at the bottom after they'd had majority control of our government for 10+ years.

What else did you expect when you turned around and put 'em back into power? ...actual responsibility?

Last summer was the summer of the Tea Party. Like most of you I found myself watching them on cable news networks almost 24/7. We saw tirade after tirade of these middle class, white, uninformed political neophytes. It made me sick. I broke them into groups; right wing racists worried about their 2nd amendment rights, hiding their AK 47’s under the floorboards of their double wides, common variety right wing nut jobs and finally the group I’m now speaking of, angry taxpayers. It is those people we should think about.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) railed against President Barack Obama's nominees to the federal bench on Tuesday afternoon, complaining that Obama was only nominating individuals with "ACLU DNA" and rattling off a list of potential judges who are now or have ever been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I'm sure that less than one percent of the lawyers in America are members of the ACLU," Sessions said. "It seems if you have the ACLU DNA, you get a pretty good leg up to being nominated by this president."

The ACLU -- which has over 500,000 members and supporters -- did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union is an organization that has gone to court repeatedly over the past nine decades to protect and defend the civil liberties guaranteed in the United States Constitution.

What does Jeff Sessions have against the United States Constitution?

As a United States Senator, Jeff Sessions swore this oath when he first came to office:

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God. "

Okay, so he swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, so why is Sessions threatening to block judges that have "ACLU DNA"?

Has Sessions forgotten his oath of office?

Or was he lying when he swore he would support and defend the Constitution of the United States?

Either way his opposition to American civil liberties is troubling.
--[ed. note - made link clickable, luaptifer]

Some of us have known this for a long time. Some of us just found out and some will find out very soon. There are few, if any, elected officials who really care about our interests unless we're one of the few thousand ultra rich who control Congress and the White House.

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.comIn the final question of today's press conference, President Obama was asked by Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal how he would respond to Democrats who think he's compromised too much in agreeing on a two-year extension of all the Bush-era tax cuts -- even for the wealthiest Americans --

WASHINGTON -- President Obama plans to announce a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers later Monday morning in his latest move intended to demonstrate concern over sky-high deficit spending.

So...instead of actually doing something real about "sky-high deficit spending" (like pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq ahead of schedule), we get a symbolic gesture that will reduce federal spending by less than 0.05 percent.

And with that symbolic gesture we witness President Obama's unfortunate alter-ego, President Gimmick. President Gimmick isn't serious about solving any of our problems, he's only serious about demonstrating his desire to solve our problems.

President Gimmick doesn't offer up plans designed to do anything, he only offers up plans designed to give him zingers for his 2012 debates.

And now he has his zingers. Duck if you expected any progress in moving the nation forward.

Just trying to remember what the current Deficit Peacock and right wing concern troll, President Gimmick, would think about the kind of change Americans voted for compared to what he just called a great deal and pissed and moaned and whined at the left for not liking:

A Texas jury Wednesday found Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader and Texas political powerhouse, guilty in a money-laundering trial involving contributions to political campaigns. The verdict was the latest chapter in a long legal battle that forced Mr. DeLay to step down. The trial also opened a window on the world of campaign financing in Washington, as jurors heard testimony about large contributions flowing to Mr. DeLay from corporations seeking to influence him and junkets to posh resorts where the congressman would rub shoulders with lobbyists in return for donations.

DeLay could face life in prison for the money laundering charges.

This part is of particular interest, IMHO, because it implies that the Republican National Committee is a central part of the laundering scheme:

After watching President Obama and the Democratic party water down healthcare reform with the help of AHIP and seeing them get insurance corporations some serious corporate welfare, water down FineReg with the help of the Bankers that destroyed the world economy by propping them up with trillions of dollars worth of free money so they could keep on rolling in their bonus money and profits, I am finding it hard to see how this can possibly lead to anything good in any way, shape or form:

President Barack Obama is preparing new overtures to business that may start with a walk into the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a retreat with corporate chief executive officers, according to people familiar with his plans.

The Obama administration has been at odds with the Chamber, which fought Obama’s health-care and financial regulatory overhauls and committed $75 million to political ads in the midterm congressional elections, mainly directed against Democrats. The CEO summit would be a way to address complaints from some executives the Democratic administration is anti- business.

This is encouraging: One of the most powerful labor leaders in the country just said that he's in direct talks with the White House and Dem leaders about throwing down the gauntlet and holding a vote just on extending the middle class tax cuts -- and that all parties involved are seriously considering it.

AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka told reporters moments ago on a conference call that he's been aggressively lobbying the White House and Dem Congressional leaders to hold such a vote. Liberals are pushing for this course of action -- rather than a fake "compromise" on extending all the Bush tax cuts temporarily -- because it would represent a genuinely confrontational approach, forcing Republicans to choose between supporting Obama's tax cut plan and opposing a tax cut for the middle class.

Asked if he had been discussing this vote with the White House and Dem leaders and whether he'd received indications it's a real possibility, Trumka said "Yes" to both.

"We've made our intensions clear," Trumka said. "We've talked to them. No one that I'm aware of has said it's not good strategy."

I don't really care about strategy as a means to an end... But if enough of them really do believe in their tax cut talk they will walk the walk. Otherwise they are just a bunch of craven politicians that will say and do anything to get elected.

Ok... So I know they are a bunch of politicians that will say and do anything to get elected already:

Which means we subsidize Alaska even as it enjoys a $2 billion-plus budget surplus.

I know that this topic comes up often where I live.... Because Connecticut is one of those many blue states that pays the welfare out to the many red states that would be bankrupt without the Federal handouts.

Alaska epitomizes the reality snow job show that is Red State Welfare.

(Washington) President Barack Obama has confided his plans to become a registered Republican some time before the end of the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress. Speaking to his inner circle, he lamented failing to bring the two major parties together. One of his confidants reported Obama saying, "It's really just one party anyway and clearly the Republicans have the confidence of the people. I can finish my original mission much easier within the GOP." Sources wouldn't elaborate on what that mission is. (Image: juvetson)

Obama clearly signaled his intentions through two recent tactical moves. He relented on ending the Bush-era tax breaks for the top 1% of income earners. The 3% reduction in the top rate accounts for over $1.0 trillion in lost revenues. Prior to the 2010 midterm elections, Obama hinted that he opposed a renewal of the tax breaks. It looked like the president might win this one with speculation that the tax breaks would likely die due to the post midterm atmosphere.

People who claim that the Tea Party is a party "of the people, by the people and for the people" are ignoring just what kind of "people" these folks are "for" -- it's not United States citizens, it's citizens who are "like them." They ignore the diverse mix of cultures, races and ethnicities that combine to form our nation's people.

With any luck, the FBI -- along with DHS and the Secret Service -- are keeping track of these dangerous, unstable individuals. And with a bit of due diligence, perhaps they've assembled enough evidence to start pressing charges against them in a way that helps ensure a trial that will expose their insanity and bring out the facts that they appear to be so ignorant, and yet so angered & fearful, of.

"I don't care how this gets painted by the mainstream media. I don't care if this shows up on YouTube, because I am convinced that the most important thing that the founding fathers did to ensure me my first amendment rights was they gave me a second amendment. And if ballots don't work, bullets will."

07:47 minutes in:

"When I say I'll put my microphone down on November 2nd if we haven't achieved substantial victory, I mean it. Because at that point, I'm gonna go up into the hills of Kentucky, I'm gonna go out into the midwest, I'm gonna go up in the, ah, Vermont and New Hampshire, ah, outreaches, and I'm gonna gather together men and women who understand that some things are worth fighting for, and some things are worth dying for."

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Where the hell was the outrage during the Bush/Cheney administration? Why are these folks so ignorant of the party mostly responsible for not only dropping this nation off an economic cliff while gutting our social and national security safety nets? Why don't these idiots look at the record of the party that was in power, and see how that party has been steadfastly working to prevent the current Administration from addressing and resolving the issues caused by the previous two?

That's the key: they're only angered about losing an election. Since they only favor democracy when it works in their favor, they show their true colors when reality catches up to them...and those colors most certainly aren't red, white and blue.

Their calls to insurrection and for assassination certainly aren't very Christian, either.

It's time that the FBI, Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security begin taking action and bring some charges against some of these imbeciles, before more poor unbalanced fools takes up arms and start shooting indiscriminately.

Otherwise, calls for sedition and treason, as well as shout-outs for the assassination of duly elected government officials, may well spark a violent conflagration between the steadily-increasing numbers of unbalanced, desperate people and the rest of our citizenry.

C'mon, folks -- do your jobs, if you've got enough direct evidence to enable you to move to counteract the rising tides of fear, loathing, anger and resentment before it turns into something even more ugly.